The EU as a leader in "ethical AI"

Indeed, the features on the My Nanjing app look remarkably similar to what Estonians are able to access via their e-Estonia program. Estonian citizens can access all their records, including health records, and choose to share them with anyone they wish.

Note the words "citizen" and "choose"—this is the point of difference between how China and the European Union (EU) deal with data. It is the citizen's choice in the EU—enshrined by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)—that stipulates that citizens are the custodians of their data and can choose how and with whom to share it.

While the EU is rarely considered a leading player in the development of AI, certain EU countries like Estonia and Finland are pioneering ethical ways of accessing and sharing data in a social contract between the citizen and state that is very different to that in the US and China.

I visited Estonia and Finland in April 2019 as part of a study tour with Melissa Ream (an AI expert in health and adviser for this book). We organized the study tour for senior health stakeholders as part of the National Academic Health Science Network AI Program in 2019 to see what we could learn and take back into the UK scenario.

We learned a lot, but, most important of all, we learned how important trust is before data sharing can generate true rewards for people and society. The extraordinary potential of data lies in its value as a tradable public asset or societal good for the benefit of all.

Estonia is a digitally enabled society through its e-Estonia program. Nearly every one of Estonia's 1.3 million citizens has an ID card, which is much more than simply a legal photo ID. Technically, it is a mandatory national card with a chip that carries embedded files, and using 2048-bit public key encryption, it can function as definitive proof of ID in an electronic environment.

Citizens have unparalleled access to a range of digital services through a trusted data exchange (called the "X-Road"), built on an open and secure data architecture. Citizens can lock and unlock access to a range of services and see which professionals have logged in (after granting access).

Estonia was the first nation in history to offer internet voting in a nationwide election in 2005. The i-Voting system allows citizens to vote from any internet-connected computer anywhere in the world. In health, over 95% of the data generated by hospitals and doctors has been digitized, and blockchain technology is used to assure the integrity of stored electronic medical records, as well as system access logs.

Finland is piloting the use of Estonia's X-Road to adopt as its trusted data exchange, enabling it to collaborate beyond borders (why have borders in a digital utopia, right?). It also passed a law in April 2019 allowing for secondary use of data, which will significantly accelerate innovation, particularly with AI.

SITRA, the Finnish innovation agency, is pioneering an ethical open data ecosystem through its work on the IHAN (International Human Account Network)^[34], a "human-driven data economy" involving the creation of a method for data exchange and a set of European-level rules and guidelines for the ethical use of data.

The IHAN standard is the "human" equivalent of the IBAN banking standard. Finland has a strong well-being culture, empowered through access to data; citizens take far more personal responsibility for their health than most other developed nations as a result.

Overall, these data models all highlight how culture will influence the use of AI in our lives and the role of the citizen versus the role of the state in issues linked to privacy, security, fairness, justice, liberty, and human rights. There is something to learn from all of them.

Countries are paying increasing attention to the ethics of AI. For example, the UK set up the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation^[35] in 2018. Singapore is establishing an advisory council on the ethical use of AI and data^[36]. Australia's chief scientist has called for more regulation of AI^[37], and the National Institution for Transforming India, an Indian Government think tank, has proposed a consortium of ethics councils^[38].

In March 2019, the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence published a survey of the EU's AI ecosystem^[39], which highlighted the key differences between the EU, US, and China. The report revealed how the EU is more focused on ethics compared to the US and China, but also flagged how its leadership in AI is being hampered through less Venture Capitalist (VC) investment and startup funding. The EU is beginning to address the funding challenges through such initiatives as the VentureEU fund and the European Fund for Strategic Investment, which may also ease the "brain drain" of talented researchers and developers going to other continents that are able to afford higher salaries through better-funded ventures.

It is clear that brain drain, skills, and jobs will all be impacted by the AI revolution. According to Yuval Noah Harari^[40], poorer countries will suffer as there will be less demand for the unskilled labor they've typically provided and the more developed countries will be able to invest in the specialized skills to meet higher demand for jobs in the digital era.

More than a decade ago, Thomas Friedman^[41] argued that the force of technology is the key driver in flattening the world. However, according to futurist Azeem Azhar^[42], far from flattening the world, technologies have fractalized it, and location matters. Indeed, there are complex geostrategic maneuvers at work between China and America in a world where existing institutions, such as the G7 or United Nations, have less impact.

After months of slogging it out against the US trade sanctions, some of China's most profitable tech companies are looking to reduce their exposure to the US^[43]. Recently, the US succeeded in changing Britain's decision to include Huawei as one of its core partners to bring in 5G technology—much to the anger of China. The COVID-19 pandemic is significantly exacerbating these tensions.